For $5 (or more if you’re so inclined) you can purchase Keep Jersey Strong: A Hurricane Benefit Comp from Bandcamp. It includes 53 tracks by area artists, including Real Estate, The Everymen, Cinema Cinema, Nicole Atkins, and more. All of the proceeds go to the American Red Cross’s efforts to help victims of Storm Sandy.

Yesterday on SoundCheck, Portland Cello Project covered one of the songs from Beck’s soon to be released sheet music collection Song Reader. Wonder who else will be covering these notated but as yet unrecorded songs? Could a “File Under Beck” rendition be forthcoming?

This week, the reunited classic lineup of Guided by Voices releases its third (!) LP of 2012 via Fire Records: The Bears for Lunch. Check out leadoff single “She Lives in an Airport” via the SoundCloud embed below.

Interpol’s Paul Banks has released a solo album, titled Banks, via Matador. Today the official video for album track “Young Again” was released. It points out that, when one puts aside the selective amnesia and nostalgia, some aspects of feeling “young again” aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.

Swans is celebrating their thirtieth anniversary in style. This year has seen the release of a 2xCD, The Seer, and a world tour, currently in progress. Even though Swans’s leader Michael Gira has reached sexagenarian status, the band still plays in a ferociously physical and thunderously intense fashion. Witness a sampling in the live video embedded below, an edited version of “The Apostate.”